[XanderZane]

He's the deal.
My wife was trying to load an audio CD information on to her iPod. She was on the 3rd disc when XP just frozed. The mouse and keyboard were not working, so she rebooted. Upon rebooting we got a black screen with the cursor. The mouse worked fine, but nothing was on the screen. When we rebooted again it asked us to go into Safe Mode or Normal Windows restart. I went into Safe Mode, ran virus scans and did a chkdsk. Everything came back clean. I tried to start the PC again and got the same Black Screen with cursor.

Not know what else to do, I figure I would just reload Windows XP. I figured something had to be corrupted. Now when trying to reload WinXP, what is suppose to take 40mins to complete is now taking HOURS. The further I got with the install was it saying "Completing Installation" which was stage 4 of a 5 stage process. This was at 26mins left. I let it run overnight and when I got up for work it was still at 26min left. The progress bar didn't move. So I rebooted the PC. Window XP said it was restarting the install again. So I let it run overnight again. This morning it was building files at 27mins left. I did receive a conflict error message for my Turtle Beach sound card on the very first install attempt. I pulled the card and retried the install, which frozed at the 26min left.

Why is this taking so long to reinstall WinXP. The only thing I can get to is DOS, but I have no idea what to run or how I can correct the problem from DOS. Anyone have any ideas?

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I was able to fix this issue. I ended up going into DOS and rename the c:\Windows directory to c:\Unix. Then I reinstalled WinXP again and it was extremely fast this time as it create a whole new c:\Windows directory. The only problem is I have to reinstall ALL of my software and drivers and Microsoft Service Pack.

Now I have a new problem. I'm unable to install Windows SP2. It says that my Key Code I used for WinXP may be invalid. If this was the case, why was it able to load ALL the prior service packs before it. I'm wonder if there is residual registry effects that is seeing the SP2 that was looking on my first installation. Not sure. Anyone know if there's a way around this?

[XanderZane]

I was able to fix this issue. I ended up going into DOS and rename the c:\Windows directory to c:\Unix. Then I reinstalled WinXP again and it was extremely fast this time as it create a whole new c:\Windows directory. The only problem is I have to reinstall ALL of my software and drivers and Microsoft Service Pack.

Now I have a new problem. I'm unable to install Windows SP2. It says that my Key Code I used for WinXP may be invalid. If this was the case, why was it able to load ALL the prior service packs before it. I'm wonder if there is residual registry effects that is seeing the SP2 that was looking on my first installation. Not sure. Anyone know if there's a way around this?

[XanderZane]

Gracious bump.

[dsenette]

uh....looks like you just installed windows over top of the other one......seems like you should have done a repair to begin with...but since you went ahead and installed the second version of windows over top...i think the other one is still underneath....you could start over by formating the drive and installilng xp again...this might make a difference

[XanderZane]

uh....looks like you just installed windows over top of the other one......seems like you should  have done a repair to begin with...but since you went ahead and installed the second version of windows over top...i think the other one is still underneath....you could start over by formating the drive and installilng xp again...this might make a difference

Actually, I deleted the UNIX directory that I had renamed from C:\Windows. Also, the "Repair" wasn't working when I tried it. When I tried to do the repair it was taking me to the DOS Window and that was about it. It did absolutely NOTHING. When I tried to reinstall over the currently WinXP install it was taking literally HOURS and HOURS to try to install and then it would FREEZE on the 4th stage. So the only solution was to create a new directory. I would have loved to have uninstalled Windows XP and then reinstall fresh, but for some strange reason, this isn't offered on the WinXP disc.

I wanted to fix the issue WITHOUT reformatting the drive. That the LAST thing you want to do, especially if you don't have a current backup, which I didn't. The one thing I should have tried was to "Recover WinXP from a previous day", but I don't think this works in Safe Mode, which was the only mode I could access at the time.

What is most likely happening is that my registry is probably showing the Key Code as being used by another user. I probably need a registry cleaning program to fix it. I will has a few friends who are knowledgable about these things. Not getting much help on this forum.

[dsenette]

by deleting the windows folder you basically just crippled that instance of windows....it's still there...and you probably went into the recovery console not the automatic repair option...and yes...you can restore to a restore point from safe mode...nine times out of ten thats the first sign that you need to restore is the fact that something is so bad that you have to get into safe mode to begin with. so currently your options are to attempt to recover your original data then reformat.....or to just bite the bullet and let it all go

[XanderZane]

by deleting the windows folder you basically just crippled that instance of windows....it's still there...and you probably went into the recovery console not the automatic repair option...and yes...you can restore to a restore point from safe mode...nine times out of ten thats the first sign that  you need to restore is the fact that something is so bad that you have to get into safe mode to begin with. so currently your options are to attempt to recover your original data then reformat.....or to just bite the bullet and let it all go

I've already reinstalled WinXP successfully and it's working fine. You must not have read all of my posts above. I really didn't cripple anything at this point. I just can't run the currently programs on the system, because they were all installed using the 1st instance of WinXP which is totally corrupted. So I'm basically deleting all the programs and reinstalling them. The only issue I'm having right now is with updates (specifically SP2). I ran Microsoft update immediately after installing WinXP and all of them downloaded and installed with no problems. I ran MS Update again and it showed SP2 to be loaded. When I tried loading this I got the error saying my Key Code may be invalid. Only other issue I have is that the registry will probably need to be cleaned of all the unnecessary crap that was from my 1st WinXP installation.

I didn't lose any data. I don't need the 1st instance of WinXP, because the computer isn't loading from this instance anymore, plus it totally mess up. Also.. I tried BOTH recoveries (console and auto repair) and neither worked. Also.. I stopped getting Safe Mode after about the 5th reboot. I was no longer even getting that option. Chances are very good that I will probably format the drive anyway after I've save all my necessary files to tape and just start fresh.

[dsenette]

ok so what you said (from what i read) you did was to log into your original windows install and delete the windows folder right? then you proceeded to install a new version of xp right?

[XanderZane]

ok so what you said (from what i read) you did was to log into your original windows install and delete the windows folder right? then you proceeded to install a new version of xp right?

Uuumm. no. I couldn't get into Windows XP. Went into Console Repair, which put me into DOS. I renamed the "Windows" directory to "Unix", then I reinstalled Window XP, which worked fine. I deleted everything in the Unix directory and reinstalled my other software. The only problem I'm having is I can't reinstalling the WIN SP2 due to my ID Code. I think it may already be seeing the code active from the first install or it could be because of Microsoft turning on their "Genuine Advantage Program".

Window Genuine Advantage Program

From what I've read, there's a way around it. I'll find out.

[dsenette]

well....see there's the issue....windows isn't just located in the "windows" folder...it's crawling around in many other areas.....the method you used works great for windows 3.1.....but xp is a little more wide spread.......the proper method would have either been to do a repair...or format the drive.....so basically...somewhere in your system...the original windows is still lurking

[XanderZane]

well....see there's the issue....windows isn't just located in the "windows" folder...it's crawling around in many other areas.....the method you used works great for windows 3.1.....but xp is a little more wide spread.......the proper method would have either been to do a repair...or format the drive.....so basically...somewhere in your system...the original windows is still lurking

Oh well. I've reinstalled WIN XP two more times since I last posted the above info. My kids went to some videocode website that corrupted either my video or sound drivers. Totally screwed up WIN XP. Couldn't even boot the system up. It's all fixed now and my kids have been banned from using my PC now. I was able to get my SP2 to be installed. So I'm not having any real problems anymore. Most likely I will be getting a 200GB drive and install Window XP fresh sometime in the Summer. Thanks for all the help though.

Xander